News of poet Al Purdy's assisted death leaves Susan Musgrave feeling 'confused'
The new details that were published this week about Al Purdy's death in 2000 have shocked not only fans of the Canadian poet, but the people who knew him best.
It had been reported that Purdy died in 2000 of natural causes. The news this week that he was assisted in his deaht have left his friend and fellow poet, Susan Musgrave, searching for answers.
In a Toronto Life article this week, assisted suicide advocate John Hofsess confessed that he helped Purdy, and seven other Canadians, end their lives at their request between 1999-2001. In the hours before the article was published online, Hofsess has ended his own life at a clinic in Basel, Switzerland.
Musgrave spoke to As It Happens host Carol Off about her reaction to her friend's death. Here is part of their conversation.
Carol Off: Susan, you were with Al Purdy in the days before and after his death. What was your understanding of how he died?
Susan Musgrave: Most of us, we thought he died of lung cancer in his sleep. He died on Good Friday, and I was there the day before. In my mind he wasn't all that ill, but who am I to say? I didn't see somebody who was ready to die, but I guess that's part of what's so perplexing in all of this is — how well do we ever know anybody?
CO: And of course, you're referring to the news this week in a posthumously published piece by John Hofsess, who went to Switzerland to end his life, and he wrote that he helped Al Purdy die — he helped put the bag over Al Purdy's head to help end his life. When you read these details... what did you think?
SM: I was disturbed, and I'm still disturbed, and I don't know why. Some of us are angry. Partly I'm thinking it was courageous and partly I'm thinking it was cowardly. Maybe it's just Al upstaging everybody once again as he did most of his life. He was a larger-than-life person and so was his poetry and maybe I'm feeling that.
CO: The Toronto Life article doesn't just reference the fact that his death was an assisted suicide. It gives tremendous detail. That John Hofsess asked Al's wife to leave the room. He mentions the wine that Al was drinking, the music he was listening to... what do you make of the details?
I was disturbed, and I'm still disturbed, and I don't know why. Partly I'm thinking it was courageous, and partly I'm thinking it was cowardly.- Canadian poet Susan Musgrave, on Al Purdy's death
SM: God is in the details, as they say, and some of us would just rather we hadn't known. Anybody dying — it's kind of a private thing. And suddenly we have all these details — a plastic bag over his head, inflating like a chef's hat. I do think, for Eurithe [Al Purdy's wife], to leave the room and know this is going on in the next room, and then to stay all night in the house with her husband's body before phoning 9-1-1 — I have no idea how she got through that.
CO: You mentioned that Al Purdy was larger than life — his voice, his demeanour. He would fill a room. Do you think that perhaps he couldn't bear to be diminished in the way this cancer was diminishing him?
SM: Possibly. I think he hadn't written for a while, and writing was how he defined himself. He never talked about anything but poetry. But it's still a pretty big thing to do... to organize so long in advance, and go through with it. He, at some point gave me his last sheaf of writing paper and said, I won't be needing this. I just thought, Oh, he's not writing poems anymore. But I hadn't realized this was part of a plan — that he really wasn't going to be needing it.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.